


Like a Knife Through my Heart

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Getting Together, M/M, Major Character Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-23
Updated: 2016-08-23
Packaged: 2018-08-10 16:12:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7852111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The alarms are blaring all over the cockpit.<br/>He can feel the heat of the smoke billowing out his lion.<br/>He feels the lion go into a nose dive and the windshield is smashing with impacts from bullets being shot by whoever is on the ground.<br/>"Fuck"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like a Knife Through my Heart

**Author's Note:**

> My first Voltron fic. Sorry if there are any issues, comments and kudos and constructive criticism is always welcome.
> 
> Hope you enjoy

The alarms are blaring all over the cockpit.  
He can feel the heat of the smoke billowing out his lion.  
He feels the lion go into a nose dive and the windshield is smashing with impacts from bullets being shot by whoever is on the ground.  
"Fuck"

Ten seconds later he ploughs into the ground, the impact throwing him out his chair, his face slamming against the shattered windshield. He's remarkably unhurt, aside from what might be a broken arm, he's okay. He's lucky not to be dead.

He pulls himself out the wreckage, and comes out with his hands raised. One hand raised. His left arm hangs limp by his side. He means no harm, but they were shooting at him before. He's safer inside the lion, but it smells like its on fire, and he doesn't want to choke to death on smoke.

He is met by a hail of bullets, he dodges the worst of them but he ends up with a dozen in his left shoulder and it's like being stabbed by a red hot poker. He is knocked over by the sheer number of bullets and he falls into the sand. It's remarkably hard to fall on, sand, all things considered- but that's the least of his problems. He can feel the blood flooding out of him, see it staining the sand. He's never been all that good with blood and it makes him feel woozy.

There's footsteps behind him, then a flash of silver. He cries out in agony as he sees the six inch blade now protruding from his stomach. The pain is nothing like before. It hits him like a red tsunami of blood coming and drowning him right here in the desert. His vision starts to leave him, red dots the same colour of his blood appearing and growing and swirling into each other.

He starts to see things in his mind, people, places, memories.  
He hates himself for the way his mind lingers on anything to do with Keith.

But still. If he's dying, Keith isn't a bad last thought.

\--------------------

 

  
"Lance?" Keith says into his helmet "Can you hear me?"

He can hear the panic in his own voice. "LANCE!" They stopped in this planet to fix the blue lion after he'd thrown it in front of the other lions to save them in an act of self sacrifice. After they'd got it working again, lance had left to do a couple laps of the planet and make sure it was all fixed before they left again. That was hours ago.

He wasn't responding to them when they tried to contact him, and he should have been back hours ago.

"Lance! Come on, Lance"

It's completely silent. Then there's a crackle and a weak voice, weakened even more by a bad connection. It starts with pained breathing and gasping, the a few unintelligible words.

"Lance?" Keith says  
There's a gasp and then two words.  
"Help me"  
Then the line goes dead.

"Lance?" Keith's voice mixes with the other three voices, all crying out the same time.

Silence.

Shiro takes a shaky breath, but his voice comes out clear. "Lance? Buddy, can you hear me?"  
He waits for a second for a response. "Okay" he looks at the other Paladins, and he places his hand on Keith's shoulder.

"Get your lions. We'll split up and we'll find him. Okay?"  
"Okay" Keith says.

\-----------------

Keith flew over the planet, flying low and fast, eyes catching on every bit of blue. He sees the world skim past but he doesn't care, he doesn't care at all- he just needs to find lance. The further he flies, the lack of good news from the Paladins, his heart speeds up. It feels like it's going to explode right out his chest. But he won't let it do that, not until he finds Lance.

Then he spots the smoke billowing out from behind a rock. The blue lion? He sets down the red lion, running toward the smoke. He's nearly there when he hears something behind him.

He turns, a weapon in his hand. It's awful and scratchy and it's completely inhuman. Then he sees.  
He realises what the sound is.  
It's Lance.

He runs toward lance, where he lies on the ground convulsing in pain.  
"I found him," He says into his helmet.

When he gets closer to Lance he can see the knife protruding from his stomach. Closer still and he can see the trickle of blood coming out his mouth and staining the sand.

"Lance? Lance! Oh my fucking God, Lance!"

He drops to his knees in the sand beside the Blue Paladin, a hand on each of his shoulders.  
"Can you hear me?"  
Lance closes his eyes and takes a breath. He nods.  
"Okay." But what does he do now? Does he take him up to the castle in the hope they can put him in a healing pod in time?

"Shiro?" He says into his helmet "I found him" his voice is shaking, he's in shock from what he's seeing but he can't break down. Not now. Not in front of Lance.  
"Is he okay?" He hears Shiro say.  
"He's hurt, Shiro"  
"Can he hold on until the rest of us get there? We're on our way."  
"He's conscious-"  
"Oh, that's good" the relief in Shiro's voice is obvious, and Keith knows he's about to destroy that.  
"- Shiro. There's a knife stuck in his stomach."  
"Shit."

It's silent for a moment, as Shiro thinks.

"Take him to Allura in the red lion, I'll tell her you're coming"  
"Okay"  
Keith pushes Lance's hair out his eyes, and Lance looks at him through half open, unfocused eyes.  
"It's okay, Lance, it's okay" he's lying of course, but he doesn't know what else to say, and he's saying it as a lie to himself as well.  
"Keith-" he says, and his voice is raspy and gasping and it's clearly costing him everything to speak.  
"Shh... It's okay, don't speak,"  
Lance screwed his eyes shut in pain, and if Keith didn't know better he was pretty sure Lance was crying.  
"Eyes open, Lance, you keep your eyes open. Don't shut your eyes. You keep watching me."  
Lance coughed, spraying blood all over Keith's face.  
"It's okay, it's okay"

He slips a hand under Lances knees and another round his shoulder. He picks him up bridal style and honestly, he's remarkably light.

"Keith-" he wheezes-"I don't" deep breath, "hate you"  
Keith's brow crumples "Okay, I don't hate you either"  
"I mean- I... I-" he stops and coughs blood on to Keith's face-"I like you"  
"I like you too," Keith says, confused at why Lance is bring this up now, and he never really thought Lance hated him, and yet here lance is saying it like its some massive revelation. The pain must be making him delirious, and looking at him, he can understand why. "Hold on, Lance, it's going to be okay"  
"You-you" he's slurring his words now, clearly on the brink of unconsciousness, "you idiot"

Then his body goes slack in Keith's arms, and Keith has to deal with the problem of where to put Lance inside the red lion. He's not going to let Lance lie loose on the floor, nor is there a place to put him. He has to be careful not to touch the knife, it's no longer bleeding quite so much and he doesn't want to dislodge the knife and make it bleed again.

He ends up lying Lance across his knees, wrapping an arm round his shoulders with his hand settling in his hair. He flies one handed, not an ideal situation but it'll have to do. He pilots the lion while watching Lance's face, making sure he's still breathing, his heart still beating. He twists his hand in Lance's hair whispering reassurances to his unconscious form.

"You have to be okay, Lance, you have to wake up because I can't do this without you"

His voice is breaking and he's only saying this because he knows Lance can't hear him, he's tried to say this before to him, but he can't and he never will, even if Lance recovers from this. He knows Lance doesn't feel the same way, he likes girls, and that's okay. Or it's not, but he just needs time and he'll get over it. Because he will get over it. He will. It's not like he's been trying to get over it for months and his feelings are only getting stronger. No, it's not like that at all.

"I love you, Lance," his voice is shaking and he can feel tears rolling down his face, he can see them landing on Lance's face,"I know you don't feel the same, and I hated myself when I first realised it myself. I knew you didn't feel the same and I couldn't bring myself to tell you. I didn't want to lose your friendship, because that would hurt the most,"

He shakes his head, "We're nearly there now, Lance, just hold on a little longer- you'll be fine"

Lance sighs slightly and shifts in Keith's lap and starts mumble and it fills Keith with hope and fear. "You doing okay?"

"Mm..." His eyes flicker open, and his eyes are bleary and unfocused "You idiot"  
"What?" Lance is slurring and he's drifting in and out of consciousness. But it sounds like he just called him an idiot.  
"When I said-" he stops for breath- "that I liked you- I meant that- I loved you"  
"WHAT?"  
"In the same," he pauses again "Very gay way you said you liked me"  
"You heard me? You- I don't-"  
It didn't matter, Lance had already passed back into unconsciousness.

  
He lands the Red Lion and he can see Allura waiting for him. He scoops Lance back up in his arms, and it's harder now, when the adrenaline has worn off and he is a dead weight in his arms. Even though he knows Lance can't hear him, he can't stop himself from running a hand through his hair, whispering reassurances that it's okay, he knows it hurts but it's only a few more minutes, he's okay, and that he loves him.

Allura takes half the weight of Lance, carrying his feet whilst Keith carries his shoulders.

"When did he lose consciousness?"  
"When I found him he was drifting in and out, but he lost consciousness about ten minutes ago and he hasn't regained it since"  
"Well that's a small blessing at least"  
"I'm sorry?" Keith says, confused.

"We can't put him in a healing pod like this, Keith. We need to take the knife out of him first, and we haven't got enough time to properly numb it. Can you imagine how much that would hurt?"  
"No-"  
"Set him down here. Start by taking those bullets out his shoulder"

Bullets? Keith had been so preoccupied with the knife and blood he hadn't noticed the dozen bullets in his shoulder. Allura takes a pair of shears and cuts off Lances shirt. There's more blood than there is skin, wet blood on top of dried blood. It's awful to look at and he he sees the way the handle of the knife stock of at an angle, the way blood is dried in the blade.

He pinches the skin between two fingers, popping the bullet out. As he removes the last bullet, Lance's eyes flicker open. He looks confused at first, like he doesn't know where he is. Then the pain hits him. It hits him like a tsunami, drowning him, knocking the wind out of him. The pain is everything at once, and it's like he's his whole body is being stabbed at once.

His eyes snap open, and a scream dies in his throat, coming out as a sharp gasp. Keith grabs Lance's flailing hands, and holds them up to his mouth. He plants a kiss on the back of his hand, ignoring the way Allura raises her eyebrows.

"You're okay Lance, you're okay"

He pours a disinfectant on an cloth and wipes in over the bullet holes. Lance hisses as it makes contact with his skin and Keith shakes his head because it's about to get worse, so much worse.

"Okay, Lance, I'm going to take the knife out now, ready?"

Lance nods, because she has to take it out either way, but he doesn't know if the pain can get any worse.

"Keith, I want you to hold him down, okay? If he moves, we have a problem"

Keith lay across Lance's chest, allowing Lance to grip his hand. It hurt, but with what Lance was going through he wasn't going to complain.

"Ready, Lance?"  
"G-Go"

And then he starts screaming.  
It's a deep guttural sound, made of pure pain. It goes on and on and it pierces Keith like an arrow straight through his heart. His eyes are wider than Keith had though possible and his torso is convulsing under him.

It's a scream that Keith will relive every time he closes his eyes for years.  
It's only when he's passed out from the pain that Keith notices the tears on Lances cheeks.

Keith keeps a hand on the newly bleeding stab wound, pressing as hand as he can but the blood keeps seeping through his fingers. Allura appears with a bandage that she presses against the wound. Keith tries to ignore the way that blood is coming through it within seconds. Together they lift him into a healing pod and the door hisses shut.

He knows Lance is okay now, he knows in a few days time he'll be back and just as annoying as ever. But right now, looking at lance in the pod, covered in blood, numb to the world, it hurts him. It ripped his heart right out of his chest and stomps on it on the floor. It leaves him crouched on the floor in front of the pod, crying and wailing in a pool of Lance's blood.

\---------------------

It's three days before the pod door opens. Three days he spends unable to sleep, watching the pod, seeing the wounds slowly heal. He's aware he's acting weirdly, aware people are worried. He doesn't change anything though.

When the door finally does open, Keith's happiness is short lived. Lance takes a couple wobbly steps, then he collapses on the floor. He runs over and drops to his knees next to where Lance lies.  
He shakes him. No response.  
He slaps him. Nothing.  
He slaps him harder. Still Nothing.

Coran pushes him out the way and presses two fingers to Lance's neck. He sighs.  
"He should be okay, the healing pods done all it can, we just need to wait for him to wake up"  
"How long will that take?"  
"Could be a few minutes or several hours, you just need to keep him warm in the mean time"

Shiro and Keith carry Lance into the room with the sofas. Shiro and hunk sit on one sofa, Lance lies across the other, his head resting in Keith's lap. Pudge comes into the room carrying a blanket from Keith's room.  
"He said to keep him warm and your room was closest- is that-okay?"  
"Yeah, sure"  
  
They wrap Lance in the blanket, and over the next two hours Hunk and Pidge leave to go eat. Shiro leaves a little later to catch some sleep.

"I'll be back in a couple hours to stay with him so you can sleep, if he isn't awake by then"  
"Night, Shiro"

  
\-------------------

When Lance comes to, everything is a blurry haze. When the haze clears he still doesn't understand where he is. He's face down on something slightly soft and everything around him smells of Keith. Not that he knows what Keith smells like or anything.

He feels a hand running through his hair and someone that sounds a lot like Keith speaks.  
"Lance? It's about time you woke up"

He groans slightly, and he pushes himself up, whatever happened it feels a lot like he's hungover and he doesn't want to move. With a little distance he realises he's been lying and possibly drooling on Keith's legs, and the moment that realisation hits he panics. Keith's never going to stop teasing him, but for some reason he let him stay there.

His eyes are wide open and he puts as much distance between them on the sofa that he possibly can.

"Hey, Lance it's okay,"  
"What- what happened?"  
"You don't- remember?" Lance doesn't think he's imagining the hurt on Keith's face.  
"Why are you looking at me like that?"  
"Lance, I found you in a desert with a knife stuck in your stomach"  
"Fuck"

"We got you in a healing pod just in time, but- you nearly died on me"  
"Oh"  
"The healing pod opened a few hours ago, you fainted and you've been here since,"

Lance closes his eyes, reliving the memories that come back to him all at once. His eyes snapped open at one point and he pointed at Keith.  
"You? Me? I don't? What?"  
"What?" Keith smiles "are you remembering how you confessed you undeniable love for me?"  
"I'm sorry, Keith- I- it's okay if you don't feel the same- I just-"  
"Lance," he said, wrapping an arm around the Paladin's waist and drew him close, whispering in his ear far more sensually than he intended-"I confessed first"

Lance looks at him, confusion all over his face "Does that mean-"  
"It means I love you, Lance" he planted a kiss on Lance's nose, "and that was cheesy as fuck. If you ever bring it up, I will end you."

"I won't" Lance says, pressing his lips against Keith's, and in that moment, everything is okay again.

\------------------

 


End file.
